I confess it isn't clear to me how much gold Rohini has left. I assume no one else has any idea. Talon? She's certainly willing to contribute whatever she has. There is also the 3,200 gp in diamond dust from Tikhade, but I don't know if we are free to use that since the purpose is to advance our mission.
Hanethes arrived just as this conversation had about summed up.
His pleasant face has a sparkle to it as he places a satchel on the ground in front of Rohini.
"Needless to say they were a little hard to find, my friends, but I happened to get a little divine luck in the end. I bought them from a woman covered in butterfly tattoos, though, so perhaps luck isn't the proper word for it."
The satchels, of course, contained the scrolls that could repair the damage inflicted upon the yamah over the course of millennia. Of course, after setting them down and becoming accustomed to his new surroundings (a lightning that happened like lightning for Hanethes as a general rule), he looked at the sorry state of Talon and felt some of the tension in the air.
"I get the feeling I've missed something. Nobody is dying though, right?"
-assuming the group will fill him in to save some time-
"That's horrible!" Hanethes interjected, troubled through the entire explanation. "And faking your death is horrible, too. But I guess when you don't have a choice you don't have a choice. I've heard of drugs that can mimic death, but they're dangerous, unsurprisingly. I could procure them from a contact if you really want them, but I prefer my companions to breathe."
He clapped his hands together. "But the yamah have waited long enough. Rohini, if you'd do the honors?"
"Han, nice to see you. We were afraid you wandered off with the gold -- just kidding -- but here you manage to return just when we need you. I'd very much like to meet your butterfly-tattooed contact, but more pressing matters await."
Rohini waits until the sun sets and asks the yamah to stand before her in a temple courtyard under the starry sky. "I apologize for asking you to wait even one moment more, but I felt after so long that your restoration was something that should happen under the starry blanket of the Song of the Spheres."
Having earlier read the scrolls, Rohini concentrates deeply and takes her time to attempt to activate them, calling forth Desna's fortune to aid her in the effort. She starts with the spirit-damaged Nyota and then the more resilient Illyata. One after the other she asks them to approach and reads the scroll while rubbing her open palm across the wing stumps on the Yamah's back, apologizing for the need to intrude on their bodies with the contact.
bit of luck:
bit of luck:
Seeing the glorious wings reappear, Rohini drops to her knees in relief, exhaustion, and an overpowering feeling of meaningfulness and purpose. She looks to the skies: "Oh thank you my Starsong for allowing me to be your instrument."
Talon just blinks his eyes as the wings reappear. But after a few moments, he just smiles as he runs over to Nyota and gives her a long kiss followed by an embrace. This is quite possibly the only time you've seen Talon speechless.
Drovya stands off to the side, mouth briefly agape at Talon's display of affection with Nyota. He briefly grins, color rushing to his cheeks and brushes away a single happy tear from his right eye.
Stupid sand, gets everywhere... he mutters.
Needless to say, it had been impossible to keep everyone out of the courtyard during that fateful evening. Pei, Tikhade, and a few of the more prominent paladins had watch with fascination and then awe as the wilted outsiders returned to their glory. While it had not been immediately noticeable to anyone but a few, the yamah had seemed older and weaker before, holding their frames heavily despite their pride.
With Rohini's magic strengthened under the starlight and the air chilly, the wings of the two reappeared as could be imagined, but they radiated their own bluish glow... with Illyata's being the stronger up to the point at which Nyota became the subject of Talon's affection. Her wings luminated and let out a shower of harmless sparks as she laughed and embraced the fighter in return. This contained more energy than before; it was practically a different, musical, and chiming sound.
Illyata pulled Rohini into a rapid embrace of her own. She seemed relieved, looking at her sister, and soon proceeded to rise into the air, singing a few loud notes as butterfly-shaped motes proceeded to appear in the air of the courtyard as if they had been waiting all along.
The heroes could feel the gratitude of a goddess coursing through them. For Rohini, this might not have been a new sensation, but for her there was a profound sense of peace, if not a promise, as she watched these creatures, that she could expect that perfect form to be her own on the day of Pharasma's judgement.
More and more motes clustered in the space, illuminating the temple.
"Blessed ones," Illyata blared, looking down. "Words are not enough to express our gratitude. We are being called home, now, but suffice to say that we shall return if ever you perform the calling."
As inquiet as Illyata happened to be, Nyota's body language imparted the idea of reluctance as the motes congregated. She planted one final kiss on Talon's forehead and raised her gaze to the sky, and then returned it to the lore warden.
"I have to go," she said simply. "But as my sister said, we will come back... If not, Desna's court is eternal whilst you are not, Beloved. Should you fall, I shall take you to our fields."
Each adventurer felt their moment in the yamah's farewell gaze, but then the two were enveloped by the motes and vanished completely, leaving the night air still and serene.
Talon tried his best to hide his disappointment at the thought of their departure.
"I understand. I don't want to wait until I'm dead to see you though, so come back, please." He watches them disappear from sight without further words.
Kanthuun watches the motes fade, extending a hand to see if any will linger. He looks around, clears his throat, and arches an eyebrow.
"So...back to Abaddon?"
Drovya hangs his head and exhales a long slow breath. His hand catches on Black Ivan's grip and stays there. Yes, back to Abbadon.
Rohini allows the others to plan the return to the horrible Abbadon. She chooses to enjoy the night sky a bit longer and finds a place to sit against a fountain, trying to play a tune on her flute that captures the sense of the movement of the stars like slowly flowing water.
Rohini's music wasn't terrible. In fact, it is of the same quality one would expect of a hobbyist, and it certainly didn't shed a poor light on the situation.
Haka watches in wonder as Rohini's ritual restores the Yamah to their true selves, even more beautiful than any of them could have imagined. The power of the moment was only augmented by the lovely creatures' departure, as it added to the powerful emotions Haka already felt at seeing them restored. After such an experience, he muttered his agreement about the need to return to Abaddon to complete their mission, but then wandered off to be alone for a time.
After walking for a bit, he heard the notes of a flute wafting through the night air, played with workaday skill, but intense feeling. Moving closer, he saw that it was Rohini playing. He did not wish to disturb her, but music was made to be played together, to be shared, to be danced to, and he could not restrain himself. He approached quietly, and began to dance, his feet tapping out a gentle rhythm to frame and support Rohini's playing, as they created a song for the Song of the Spheres, under her glittering stars.
It required Haka's level of skill to pull off such a dance without making Rohini seem extraneous, but somehow Haka managed. In fact, even the untrained eye could see the perfection of the halfling's movements, as if they themselves were an echo of the divine.
If Haka had been seen by a king or emperor, he may have been pressed into service right then. As it was, this performance was for a select few and the stars above.
Reverently, the nearby unnamed paladin let out a few careful claps.
Everyone slept well that final night. No nightmares, but rather visions of a wooded paradise flooded their sleeping hours.
The next day they needed all the energy they had gathered to face the horrible reality of Abaddon yet again...
Drovya slept in the small cell provided to him through Tikhade's largess, for once, untroubled by dark dreams. He rose early, washed his face from a basin and spent a quiet hour with his grimoire, locking arcane secrets away in the labyrinth of his mind, all the while unconsciously humming to himself. Once his spells were prepared, he used a simple cantrip to clean his body, clothes, teeth, hair, boots, armor and weapons. As usual, the patina of filth on Black Ivan resisted his efforts, but the half-elf put that out of mind and strode forth to meet his companions. Along the way, he stopped in the kitchens and begged some breakfast, hoping for fresh bread, bacon, and a bit of fruit, but happy with whatever could be spared.
Talons dreams are happy ones as usual though instead of the raunchy fantasies he normally has, he dreams of being in the fields of Elysium, just him and the Yamah he had come to care for. He wakes up last, not wanting to interrupt his dream and meets his companions fashionably late. "We ready to go?"
Kanthuun paces back and forth. "Larazod knows no lies, great magistrate, and no slanderer’s tongue caresses my dignity. The accusations you speak are as true as Lord Entropy’s sword," he mutters under his breath, pausing to check his paces and stance. "Lord Entropy's...Lord Entropy's...ah yes. They cleave right through. And well they should, too, Entropy being such a mighty force of cleaving. Oh! Hullo Talon, Drovya, merely dusting off some lines an old Chelaxian friend gave me once." He looks entirely half-prepared for Abaddon, his pack somewhat hastily assembled and lumpy, although his hair does look nigh perfect.
Rohini is pleased to have Haka's accompaniment and feels lifted and inspired by the support of his accompaniment. As people drift off, her playing becomes quieter and more contemplative. Eventually she fades off to sleep under the blanket of stars. She, like Talon, dreams of the fields of Elysium, and she wakes fully rested despite her seemingly inappropriate sleeping locale. After prayer she carefully packs her bags and meets the others, clearly reluctant to return to Abbadon but even more determined to see the mission to completion.
After the final charge from the amulet was expended, the party once again found themselves with the accursed marsh underfoot and the sinking sensation of falling back to sleep during a night plagued be ephemeral terrors.
The wayfinder shook again, and the replenished flies in the cold wet swarmed around anything not covered in armor or cloth, though few did more.
The camp loomed ahead, and Hanethes looked to the group.
"Together?" he asked, smiling with his typical amicability.
"Always." Talon heads in the direction of the camp.
Drovya falls in behind Talon, tightly gripping Black Ivan's hilt while he conjures up a series of tiny breezes around him in an effort to keep the swarming flies away.
Kanthuun swats the flying beasties away for a minute, then notices Drovya's spell, suddenly remembers that he has imbued the same spell in his blood, and casts it as well, humming confidently.
After another few seconds he casts Mage Armor.
"I am beginning to understand why some sorcerers are tattooed...I would probably have to tattoo all the spells swirling around me onto my skin so that I remember them," he says in a mix of speculation and mild complaint. "There are so many!"
Haka trudges along in the cold muck of the swamp, glancing around occasionally, but generally looking down at his feet, wishing the soft hair on them weren't getting clogged once again with the fetid mud of this awful place.
Upon return to Abaddon, a gasp emerges from Rohini. "This place sits as a weight on my soul. My Lady help us succeed quickly and leave this place not to return." Without magical pest control, the flies buzz around mercilessly, but she ignores them, a look of determination set upon her face as she falls in line.
The camp
The camp had half the population it had prior, but there was still a full compliment of guards manning the entrance in the palisades. The blackened altars ran slick with some sort of new rite, and the light above the pyramid danced, though it was feebler than before... or one could say more sporadic.
The wayfinder hummed in much the same manner.
There was no sign of the big, bad, boss. Nor were there many familiar faces, aside from one of the guards and someone putting a training dummy up. That would be the dimmer of the men encountered during Drovya´s... entertaining possession.
There are shops, as usual, but less. Having seen you around the camp, no one makes a great fuss... though several drow seem to be eyeing Hanethes and Drovya oddly as they make their way through a camp that probably only contained fifty people now... at a guess.
The shop turf is well defined. There are pitted rags on the ground marking out where the stalls can be set up.
"What's the plan to go in there this time? Just walk right in? I don't see a ticket-taker..." Kanthuun looks around, disliking most of what he sees.
"We might as well."
"Yes, what the Hells. What are they going to do, stop us?" Kanthuun spits acid on the ground.
"Exactly."
Haka says quietly, "That's a plan?"
"You got a better one? Our last one wasn't stellar."
"Well, the rest of the plan was, get the quarry, kill whomever we need to kill, and leave. Sound good, Haka? Oh, and don't die or go insane."
Drovya sneers at the dark elves and then strides purposefully over to the rag-lined spaces and begins setting out samples of the wares from his bag of holding. Hsst! He frowned at Talon, Kanthuun and Haka, motioning them closer as he placed a tin of coffee beans just so. His voice pitched low, he invoked a minor magic to create a hum of white noise around them, hoping to keep his words unintelligible to any idle listeners.
The plan is to sell our wares, my fellow merchants. What might happen when sleep comes to certain guardians is another matter. He shakes his head. Honestly Talon, you're a man of intelligence. I expect better from you. Now, he rubs his hands briskly together. Let's see what we can do about turning a profit.
"Really? I'm also a man of action. But we can go with your plan."
The stall was set up without much ado. It really wasn't a hard task to find the proper materials, what with the mountain of supplies the party had meticulously procured in Katapesh. This, combined with a healthy level of general lack of patrols in the area, allowed the group to carry on unmolested.
However, once preparations were almost complete, the drow and the more desperate-looking humans started to drift over.
Talon will throw his weight around if anyone gets too close or start asking bad questions. Alot of 'Hey You!'s and 'Back Off's are interspersed in his act of being a guard.
Haka starts up an engaging banter, listing their many wares as he does a tapping dance around the table, his hands indicating each piece with a flourish, even lifting up some of the smaller items and rolling them from hand to hand.
Drovya takes an opposite position from Talon, doing his best to throw his lesser weight around.
Unfortunately, his tendency to second guess himself lends rather less to the desired effect than one could hope for.
Rohini attempts to play the role of a trusted shopkeeper, a calmer presence to contrast with Haka's theatrics and seal the deal.